Nim (Abigail Breslin) swims with Selkie the sea lion in Nim’s Island.

Twentieth Century Fox

Abigail Breslin and Jodie Foster team up for enough adventures to keep even Indiana Jones busy in Nim’s Island (Fox, $29.98).

Breslin plays a marine biologist’s daughter on a faraway tropical island who is tossed into a panic when her father is lost at sea during a sudden storm. His boat is smashed apart and he is sent overboard with no way of communicating.

But then, out of the blue, the little girl gets an Internet message from her favorite author, Alex Rover, requesting information from her father for the writer’s new book. Before long the reclusive Rover, who turns out to be a woman played by Jodie Foster, concludes that little Nim is alone on the island and needs help. So, although Rover rarely leaves her San Francisco home despite writing daredevil adventure stories that kids love, she steels her courage and heads for the South Seas.

Soon they’re involved in a raft of adventures, including saving tourists from an erupting volcano. This Swiss Family Robinson type film has quite a bit of surprising irony as well as thrilling moments. Although it’s simplistic at times, its message of a lost parent and helplessness will resonate with children, not to mention the scenes in which the resourceful Nim rides underwater on the back of a sea lion.

The disc includes deleted scenes and commentary by Breslin and Foster.

The real McCoy

Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky’s The Counterfeiters (Sony, $28.96) took the Oscar for best foreign film this year, spinning an unusual twist on the idea of collaborating with the enemy.

It’s about a concentration camp prisoner, a master counterfeiter before World War II, who becomes part of a team who counterfeits British and American money for the Nazis with the idea of destabilizing those countries’ economies. (The Germans, indeed, tried to do that.) The team is given special privileges, knowing full well that their days are numbered when their job is through.

The Counterfeiters eventually becomes a moral tale as the counterfeiter comes into conflict with another prisoner who wants to stop the plan. The film, for the most part, stays tough-minded, creating a picture that shows the horror of the Holocaust but remains focused enough to tell a story.

Also new this week

Two feuding brothers create tensions in 1960s Italy in My Brother Is an Only Child (Image, $27.98); a woman races against her biological clock to conceive a child through unconventional means in the comedy Miss Conception (First Look, $24.98); three former high school friends return home to confront their futures following the death of a friend in Wasted (Genius, $19.97); Jane Fonda and Alain Delon get involved in murder on the French Riviera in Joy House (Koch Lorber, $26.98); a ghostly spirit from an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus wreaks havoc in the Louvre Museum in Belphegor: Phantom of the Louvre (Lionsgate, $19.98); Nikki Blonsky, the star of Hairspray, campaigns to become her high school Homecoming Queen in Queen Sized (Anchor Bay, $19.97); Tommy Lee Jones stars in his Emmy Award performance as the first person to be executed after reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 in The Executioner’s Song: Director’s Cut (Paramount, $19.99).

From TV

Back again on your home screen are: Get Smart: Season One (HBO, $24.98); Starship Troopers 3: Marauders (Sony, $27.96); Star Trek The Original Series: Season Two (CBS/Paramount, $99.99); The First Olympics — Athens, 1896 (Sony, $19.94); Route 66 (Infinity, $49.98); Lonesome Dove: 2-Disc Collector’s Edition (Genius, $19.95); Hotel Babylon: Season Two (BBC, $39.98); Family Ties: The Fourth Season (CBS/Paramount, $42.99); Sensitive Skin: The Complete Seasons One and Two (BBC, $29.98); Sunset Tan: Season One (Lionsgate, $19.98); Prison Break: Season Three (Fox, $49.98); Code Monkeys: Season One (Shout! Factory, $19.99); Masters of Science Fiction (Anchor Bay, $29.97); Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show: Complete Series (MVD, $29.95); Terminal City (Koch Vision, $39.98); The Hive (Genius, $14.95); Foyle’s War, Set 5 (Acorn, $49.99).

For children

Keep them entertained with Growing Up Safari (Genius, $14.95); Garfield’s Fun Fest (Fox, $19.98); Back at the Barnyard (Nickelodeon, $16.99); Little Einsteins: Flight of the Instrument Fairies (Disney, $19.99); Handy Manny: Manny’s Pet Roundup (Disney, $19.99); Ben 10: Season 4 (Cartoon Network, $19.98); He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Volume Three ($26.98); Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers — The Collection: Volume 2 (Koch Vision, $39.98); The Super Fun Show! (Role Model, $14.98).

Performance

Laugh with Dana Carvey: Squatting Monkeys Tell No Lies (HBO, $19.97); find three James Brown concert discs together on I Got the Feelin’: James Brown in the ’60s (Shout! Factory, $39.98); get in the folk mood with Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (Genius, $24.95); ride along with REO Speedwagon: Live from the Heartland (Koch Vision, $19.99); rock along with Heart — Live (Koch Vision, $24.99); get the latest on the British music scene with Marillon — Somewhere in London (MVD, 24.95).

Documentaries

Go into the countryside in Wild China (BBC, $29.98); explore the world of reptiles and amphibians in Life in Cold Blood (BBC, $34.98); go to both sides of the issue with Biography: Barack Obama or Biography: John McCain (A&E, $12.95 each).

Collections

Relive the 1980s with Paramount’s I Love the ‘80s collection of repackaged hits from the era. At $14.99 each are Footloose, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Pretty in Pink, Beverly Hills Cop, Airplane!, Friday the 13th, Top Gun, Fatal Attraction, American Gigolo, Urban Cowboy, Terms of Endearment and more.

With Journal Wire Reports